Climate finance fundamentals 6: Latin America (2017 update)

This series of short, introductory briefings are designed for readers new to the debate on global climate change financing. In light of the fast pace of developments in climate finance, the briefs provide a better understanding of the quantity and quality of financial flows going to developing countries.

Latin America is a highly heterogeneous region, with differences in levels of economic development and social and indigenous history, both among and within countries. The impacts of climate change, in particular glacial melt and changes in river flows, extreme weather events and risks to food production systems, affect development in both rural and urban areas in the region.

Climate finance in the Latin American region is highly concentrated, with Brazil and Mexico receiving half of the region’s funding. Mitigation activities receive more than six times that of adaptation from multilateral climate funds, at USD 2.5 billion and USD 0.4 billion respectively. Since 2003, a total of USD 3.1 billion has been approved for 335 projects in the region from multilateral climate funds tracked by the Climate Funds Update website and 26 new projects were approved in 2017, totalling USD 261 million. The World Bank administered Climate Investment Funds, the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund collectively funded 69% of these new projects.